CS 4250 Project Part 7

Demos: you must send me a link to your website by 5pm on Monday, May 20, 2013.

(Subject line of "cs4250, project part 7", exactly. You should send the link / URL early; I will not visit your website until the deadline.) Remember to include the name of your project/group in the email message.

The goal of this part of the project is to interface your database with a programming language and to make it web-accessible. This is the stage where you embed your database into a complete application. The programming language that I recommend is PHP, a popular, server-side scripting language. Executable commands are embedded via special tags in the source of the web page. PHP has been installed on the P 288 machines. Using PHP, the MySQL database that you have created can be accessed via the web, using a webserver installed on hopper.csustan.edu. Before detailing the assignment itself, it may be helpful to read the following FAQs:

Answer: No. Due to security constraints, you can access the MySQL database server on hopper.csustan.edu only from machines in P 288, either by logging in directly or by using the web interface you will create in this part of the project.

Note that if you write your PHP scripts to connect to "localhost" (as shown on the MySQL handout that contains your MySQL password) and test them by connecting to an installation of MySQL on your own machine, then porting the scripts to a P288 for project submission should be fairly straightforward.

FAQ: Can we use our own database server and web server?

Answer: Yes. You are welcome to do the project completely on your own computer. Notice that this part of the project involves having a DBMS (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL server etc.) and drivers for accessing the database from the programming language you will use to implement your web interface. Depending on how you choose to demo your web interface, your computer may also need to be net-accessible (so that people -- your project partners, your professor -- can access the web pages that are stored in your computer via the world wide web). In addition, you may need to install PHP (if you decide to use PHP for your web interface), and a web server that you can operate on your computer. In short, if your setup allows one to create web pages and make them publicly accessible on the WWW, you are in good shape.

If you choose this option, you take full responsibility for ensuring that your machine supports all the desired functionalities. I will not be able to accommodate any last minute requests for extensions because something is not working. I provide this option for your convenience, so that you can take advantage of any already existing setup for your project. Do not attempt this unless you are absolutely positively sure of what you are doing. We do not have the resources or the manpower to provide technical support and help in debugging. At the end of the day, I will grade it just like every other project.

FAQ: Can we use ASP/Ruby-on-Rails/AJAX/Javascript/substitute-the-latest-buzzword-here/ for the project?

Answer: Certainly! However, should you decide to use <insert buzzword here>, you are on your own. We do not have facilities to support these in the lab, nor to provide technical support.

The sysadmin verified that PHP and Ruby should work, and that is all. (Ruby on Rails may or may not.) If you choose to use Ruby, contact the professor ASAP, since some security-related adjustments will need to made to your user account. (That is the full extent of the technical support we will provide for using Ruby.)

• Select one person in your project in whose directory you will create the files for the web interface.
• Create a directory called cs4250 in this person's main web site directory on hopper.csustan.edu. (Frequently, this web site directory is named public_html.)
• Follow the directions on the MySQL account information handout to make the cs4250 directory world-readable.
• Place all your scripts and files inside this directory.
• You can access your website at the following URL: http://hopper.csustan.edu/~<selected person>/<start file name>.php.

Help with PHP

Here are some good documentation resources:

• The PHP website
• The PHP manual. The manual has a newsgroup-like facility with lots of potentially useful user comments.
• PHP 101: Down the Rabbit Hole. A 15-part introduction to PHP.
• Our library has a subscription to the Safari Books On-line digital library. O'Reilly publishers have all their books available on Safari, and they publish some excellent PHP books. Titles like "Head First PHP & MySQL", "Learning PHP, MySQL and JavaScript", "Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL", "PHP and MySQL For Dummies" and many others look promisingly relevant to this project. (Your professor has not read all these books and cannot speak to which is best. Past students have spoken well of "Head First" books, and personal experience informs me that the books published by O'Reilly Media are frequently well put together.)

• dbx is a database abstraction layer that provides a nice high-level interface to databases but is restricted in terms of functionality. MySQL is a supported database.
• PHP supports several APIs for accessing MySQL. Here is a guide to selecting the API you prefer.
• The MySQL Improved Extension (mysqli) allows you to access the functionality provided by MySQL 4.1 and above.

Should you find another good PHP/scripting/MySQL documentation/help WWW page, please let me know and I will add a link here for the whole class to benefit from.

What I want to see at the end of the day is a single web page that provides a nice interface to your database. Feel free to do more fancy and creative things, but do so only after completing this "core" requirement. Here is a style guide for what this page should look like. If you look at the template carefully, notice that we are only querying the database. We are not doing any inserts, updates or deletes. (That's one direction to look at, if you are aiming to be creative.)

One team member from your project should send the URL for your web page, where I can access your application. This can be done by sending email to Dr. Thomas. Notice that this URL could be located on hopper.csustan.edu or on some server that you run yourself. If you choose the latter option, then it is your responsibility to make sure that the server is up and running when I try to access your web page.

When you send your URL, I will add it to the class WWW page. I strongly recommend you send the URL very early, so that you may verify (by traversing the link from class WWW page to your page) the URL is correct. I will not grade until May 20th, so it is ok if the URL you send leads to a largely non-functional page at the time you send the URL. (The page should be functional by the 18th, however.)

In addition, you need to compile a project report about 6--8 pages in length, plus source code appendices. More on this below.

Here's the distribution of points:

1. (30 points) Does everything work correctly and do all the buttons and links that I click indeed do what they are expected to do. I will see if you are really accessing the database dynamically and are not just "looking up" the data from some ready made source. I will ensure this by typing ad-hoc queries. You will also need to make sure that all query results have column names neatly presented and that data is clearly tabulated.

   Either include links, clearly located in your website, to the source code for your project website, or include the source code as appendices to your project report.

2. (15 points) A project report where you summarize all parts of your project in a single document. If possible, include snapshots of your web interface. This report can be easily created by cut-and-pasting all the previous reports that you submitted, making sure you include the E/R diagram, the details about normalization, your relational schema and the queries you created in the previous part of the project. Include the role of each team member in the project. Clearly identify the scope of everybody's contribution. If there were any problems during the course of the project (due to less than complete participation by some team member), identify them.

   Portable Document Format (PDF) format preferred for your report. MS Word or plain text also acceptable.

   Include your answer to the next question in the document, too.

   You do not need to submit your report separately; just link it from the web page that you turn in so that I can download it.

3. (5 points) Explain whether or not somebody who is truly working in the domain of your application would use your web-enabled database, or if there is something missing or intrinsically complex that will deter them from using it. (Is your web-enabled database not powerful enough for the real world, or too complicated for the real world?) For example, if you are in the books domain, would a bookseller use your database? It would be ideal if you had access to a real application domain person; you could just ask him/her to visit your web page and give you feedback. Alternately, look at "similar" systems or web pages and see if they are doing something differently and if your approach is better (or worse) and why. Include your answer to this question in your project report.

   Please note that there is no "right" answer to this question nor will you be penalized for saying that there is something missing from your project. What I want to see is if you can discuss your domain, your database, and the implications of the design and implementation decisions you made in your system for the application domain that you have chosen.

4. (5 points) Neatness, presentation, grammar, style, consistency etc.
5. (15 points) Implement some extra functionality. In your project report, clearly list exactly what you have implemented and how we can test it. Note that you must implement some extra functionality, to have a chance of getting up to 15 points. Here are some suggestions for this step:
   • Implement more complicated DB functionality: inserts, updates, deletes, etc., or some more complex queries.
   • Create a more visual or sophisticated interface for your web application, not just the vanilla style template shown above. If there is a more "natural" way for your application, maybe you will write some cute little interface for it.
   • Address other aspects of your application, such as transactions (which we have not covered in class)
6. (Extra Credit points) If the extra functionality is remarkable, you can get up to 15 points of extra credit, depending on how complex your application is.